If you have a lot of different debts or have debts that were taken out a long time ago you might not be able to remember everyone that you owe money to. We consider whether you can carry out an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) without being able to remember who all your creditors are.

If you are planning to start an IVA you must always include all of your unsecured debts in the agreement. Generally speaking you are not allowed to leave out any debts voluntarily.

However it may not always be easy to remember all of the people you owe money to. If it has been a long time since you borrowed the money or if you owe money to a large number of different people or banks you may have lost track of who is still owed what.

Check your credit file for a list of creditors

The best way to check to see who you owe money to is to review your credit file. This will list all of your unsecured debts and how much there is outstanding to each one. You can get a copy of your file from any of the major credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax or CallCredit).

All of these agencies will be able to sell you their monthly online credit file update products. However, for the purpose of simply checking who you owe money to and how much, you simply need to order a copy of your statutory credit file for which you will have to pay just £2.

Sometimes one agency may hold information about your creditors that another has missed. As such, given you will only have to pay £2 for each file, it is always worth ordering a copy from at least two of the agencies.

How can you work out what you owe to each creditor?

If you are unsure exactly how much you owe one or other of your creditors your credit file should give you this information. Alternatively you can always call up the creditor in question and ask them to send you the outstanding balance in writing.

If you have an outstanding loan you should not use a settlement figure in your IVA. The way to calculate the true outstanding balance is to multiply the number of payments you have left to pay by the monthly payment that you should normally make.

BMD Tip: If you are a sole trader you should also remember that may have an outstanding tax debt with HMRC which can also be included in the Arrangement. Before starting your application you will need to make sure your personal tax returns are completed to the end of the tax year just finished so that a true reflection of what you owe can be included.

Do you want help to start an IVA? Give us a call on 0800 077 6180 or complete the form below to speak to one of our experts

Can you add forgotten debts to an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

If you have already started your IVA but then discover that you have left out one of your debts, this cannot just be added to the agreement at a later date. Whether a new debt can be added or not will depend on how much it is for and the effect that adding it will have on your other creditors.

If the new debt is relatively small and by adding it to the Arrangement the amount that all the other creditors are paid reduces by less than 10 percent then the debt can be added automatically.

However, if by adding the new debt the amount each original creditor will receive falls by more than 10 percent, then the new debt cannot be added automatically. Instead, all the original creditors have to be given the opportunity to agree. If they do not then it cannot be added.

In this situation you must keep up your IVA payment or the arrangement will fail. However, the creditor which has been left out can still try to collect their debt and take further action against you. As such, you will have to try and make a reduced payment agreement with them or you could consider allowing your Arrangement to fail and starting a different solution.

Try to get it right from the beginning

Failing to include large debts in your IVA may have very serious implications. If the original creditors do not then allow the new debt to be included, you will have to try and make informal arrangements to pay this debt.

If you are then unable to make a satisfactory informal payment arrangement with the excluded creditor, they could take further action against you which may then put your whole Agreement at risk.

As such, it is always best to make sure you make every effort to remember and include all of your debts at the beginning of the application process.

However, if the Arrangement is already in place and then you realise that you have forgotten or missed out a debt, make sure that you tell your insolvency practitioner (IP) straight away. They can then work with you to try and find a solution.